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Chapter Six: Event Horizon

Johnson checked his gear one last time before he moved to the hatch of the Cloudrunner. Krystal stepped up beside him and tapped him on the shoulder."Let me," she said before she seemed to concentrate before she opened the hatch. Johnson's training then took over, as his rifle snapped up and he rushed through the door. Johnson automatically checked each corner of the large hanger they were in as Fox and his team got out of their crafts.

The hanger itself seemed to have seen better days. There was dust all over the place, along with old rusted tools, and various other objects scattered about. It reminded Johnson a lot of the old Kodiak that was used back during his training to be a Commando. There was a large door behind him that showed space, but was separated by a light blue screen. When Johnson looked at the room a little closer, he noticed that there were some scorch marks on the wall; they definitely came from combat. Johnson walked over, carefully scanning the surroundings, and kneeled down near one of the scorch marks. 'Plasma-based weaponry was definitely the cause. There was a fight in here. I wonder between who,' Johnson thought as he stood back up and saw that the Star Fox team had already secured the rest of the hanger.

"Clear," Johnson said over the radio, "Stack up on that door, there." He pointed to the only door in the hanger. The entire team nodded, but Krystal must have caught Fox's eye as he turned to look at her.

"Kr-Krystal?! What are you doing here?!" Fox asked, although it was almost as much of statement as a question.

"Ghost asked me to be here," she said, but before things went any further, Johnson stepped in.

"Fox, you have your orders, carry them out. Breach that room when you are ready. We have a mission to complete," Johnson ordered. Fox looked like he was about to argue, but Johnson glared hard at him and growled, "Now." Fox seemed ready to argue but when Johnson took a step towards him while flipping his rifle's safety from on to off, Fox ran towards the door. Johnson watched Fox do as he was told. He then shook his head. He met Krystal's gaze.

"Let's go. You probably know this ship better than any of us," Johnson said just as the Star Fox team opened the door and rushed in. Krystal nodded her head. Both she and Johnson ran into the room after hearing the Star Fox team call out clear. Johnson scanned the room. There was no lighting in the room at all, but the NVGs (Night Vision Goggles) built into Johnson's armor automatically came on and cut through the darkness. The rest of the team seemed to have their own version of NVGs on. The scoring from plasma weapons was far higher in this room than the bay. Johnson looked closely at a table of some sort that was near him and he could see a slight layer of dust on it. 'This room hasn't been disturbed for some time... Whatever happened here happened a while ago...Maybe a few months ago... Why do I feel as if this will become like that Dead Space game that was so popular back in the early 2000's?' Johnson thought as he looked around the dark room for anything like a light switch. There was nothing on the walls at all; save for a few dark spots that Johnson's experience told him might have at one time been blood splatter. The room itself had three doors including the one they had just entered. After Johnson had finished looking around, he felt himself let out the breath that he had unintentionally been holding.

"There was a battle here," Falco said.

'Really? I wouldn't have guessed,' Johnson thought, but said, "Yeah, must have been quite the party based on the amount of plasma scoring and blood splatter. Right now, our priority is to get to the bridge. Krystal, do you have any inclination on where that could be?"

"No, I don't. I have never seen this kind of ship before. My brother owned the Cloudrunner before he gave it to me. Cerinia didn't have any spaceships, but this does feel like it's from Cerinia. It doesn't make any sense," she replied.

"Alright, I guess we are going to need to split up. Fox, Falco, Slippy, go down that hallway and report what you find," Johnson ordered, "Me and Krystal will head down this way and see what we find. Report in every fifteen minutes and report in immediately if your situation changes at all. Keep your heads down and eyes open. We went into this mission in one piece, let's try and keep it that way. Who ever made these marks could still be here. Move."

Fox nodded his head and said, "Alright team, move!" The Star Fox team moved to the door that Johnson had indicated and proceeded slowly through the hallway on the other side. Johnson motioned to Krystal to move to the door that they were going to breach. Johnson moved to the right of the door while Krystal moved to the left. Johnson then tried to open the door but it was unpowered. Johnson then tried to muscle the door open when the door suddenly burst open. Johnson then dove to the right while Krystal let out a small scream as something jumped through the door. Johnson quickly rolled to his feet, unslung his carbine, aimed at the thing. The thing that jumped through the door stood on four feet and started to growl.

"GD-Cornerian military! Don't move!" Johnson yelled as Krystal fell back in what looked like horror. The thing sort of looked like a gryphon, the mythological creature from ancient Earth legends, but it didn't have a tail or wings. The thing turned towards Johnson, growled again and leapt at him. A three-round burst from the carbine and the gryphon's corpse was still flying at him. He then shifted his grip on his carbine and nailed the gryphon in the head with the butt of his rifle. The gryphon flew off to the left and landed about a foot away from Johnson. Johnson looked at it again, closer this time. It really was a gryphon, not some machine dressed up to look like one. 'Wow...That Myth and Mysteries class in high school actually helped with something after all. I always thought that would be a completely useless class,' Johnson thought as he nudged it with his foot while he trained his carbine on its head. He kicked it a few times and it didn't move. Johnson looked over at Krystal. With how scared she seemed, Johnson was surprised that her fur wasn't pure white. Johnson moved over to her and helped her up while he activated his radio.

"Fox, this is Ghost. Be careful, we just got jumped by what looks like a gryphon. It's KIA now, but keep your heads down. We still have hostiles here. We are green, green, green," Johnson said.

"Understood, but what do you mean 'green, green, green?'" Fox asked.

"ACE report," Johnson said.

"Oh, ok. We are also all green," Fox said.

"Understood. Ghost over and out," Johnson said over the radio and then he said to Krystal, "You ok, you look like over seen a ghost?"

"Th-That thing... I-It's...It..." she stuttered.

"It's dead. Now shake it off Krystal. We need to focus on the mission," Johnson said.

"Th-That thing k-killed the crew. All of them," Krystal said as she tried to reign in on her emotions.

"Are you sure? How do you know that?" Johnson asked.

"I'll tell you later," she said.

"Great, so much for some new allies...Fox, this is Ghost. Forget about trying to find survivors. They are all KIA according to Krystal. If it moves, call it out. If it doesn't respond, kill it," Johnson said.

"Roger, should we stop focusing on stealth?" Fox asked.

"Permission to go loud granted. Let 'em have it," Johnson said.

"Understood. Going loud," Fox said. Johnson looked at Krystal again. She had pulled herself together and had her blaster ready.

"Let's move," Johnson said as he snapped his rifle up and moved to the door. He looked down the sights of his carbine as he scanned the hallway. He then moved forward cautiously. Krystal was right behind him as he moved forward. The hallway was completely silent save for Johnson's and Krystal's boots hitting the floor.

"I don't like this," Krystal whispered.

"I know," Johnson said, "It's too quiet." Johnson held up a fist and Krystal froze behind him. Johnson scanned the area ahead. He then shook his head.

"I can't tell if there is anything ahead of us. I going to switch to thermals," Johnson said as he tapped and the side of his helmet, "Thermals, on." The green in Johnson's vision became dark blue. He scanned the room for any sign of heat. There was nothing, so Johnson motioned for Krystal to follow. After just a few feet, suddenly a huge plume of heat appeared to Johnson's right. Johnson threw himself backwards and right into Krystal. They both landed on the ground.

"Thermals off," Johnson said as his carbine snapped up and the view through his helmet changed back into that of the standard NVGs.

"What was that for?!" Krystal demanded as she picked herself off the floor.

"I saw a huge flare of heat coming off from this direction. I couldn't tell what it was," Johnson said as he low crawled over to the corner of the hallway that branched off in the direction of the heat. Johnson kept his rifle shouldered as he stood up into a crouch and cautiously moved down the hallway. The hallway slanted upwards slightly and that made Johnson nervous. The hallway was completely featureless. If they got ambushed by anything with a rifle, they would be in some serious trouble. Johnson looked at Krystal and used some hand signals to indicate that the area ahead of them was a 'linear danger area' (AN: a Linear Danger Area is a location that has no cover what so ever.).Krystal looked confused for a second, and then nodded. Johnson replied with a nod and then turned back around and moved down the hallway. His carbine swept left and right as he moved faster through the hallway. He saw a few doors here and there along the corridor, but they were either so badly damaged that it was obvious that they wouldn't open or they were obviously sealed shut for whatever reason.

After what felt like an hour to Johnson, they reached a door that did have power and wasn't sealed shut. Johnson also noticed that just past the door, the hall started to slant downwards. 'I wonder what's in this room,' Johnson thought as he moved over to the door. Johnson tried to open the door but it was locked. Johnson tried to find a way to see if he could hack to lock, but after a few seconds of just staring at the control panel, Krystal tapped him on the shoulder. Johnson looked at her, then stepped away from the control panel.

"Have at it," Johnson said as he took up a covering position, and after a few seconds the door hissed open. Johnson looked over at Krystal and said, "Show off." Johnson then quickly entered the room and swept through it. The lights in the room revealed a mess. Consoles all over the room were in various states of 'deconstruction.' Most of them seemed to have taken direct hits from energy-based weapons, and others were just too damaged to tell what happened to them. Everything was in disarray. Johnson eventually pieced together enough information that he figured out what room they were in. It was the bridge. The battle in here must have been very fierce, since the damage was near total. The bridge didn't have a viewing port into space like a few of the spaceships that Johnson had been on did, but there was what looked like shattered glass on the ground near the back wall, which to the bridge crew would be the front wall. Johnson guessed it was possible that there was a screen there at some point. Johnson looked for some active console. He eventually found one that worked, but was still heavily damaged, and it didn't seem to be working too well.

"EVA, hack into the computer and download any non-corrupted file," Johnson said as he turned and looked back at the door they came in.

"Accessing...Accessing...Hacking...Hacking...Accessing...Accessing...Analyzing...Analyzing...Analyzing... Compiling...Downloading...Downloading Complete," Eva stated.

"Man, this place is a mess. What do you think happened here?" Krystal asked, as she walked up behind him. Johnson just shrugged as he moved away from the console.

"EVA, any chance that you can access the ships engines and stop this boat?" Johnson asked as he aimed his rifle at the door. 'Something doesn't feel right,' Johnson thought as he aimed his weapon at the door. He moved over to an area where he can see the door and has access to immediate cover should he get shot at.

"Accessing...Accessing...Accessing...Accessing failed. Controls are locked out excepted from direct input by either bridge crew or Engineering," EVA stated.

"Krystal, do you think that you can fix that console enough that we can use it to stop this ship?" Johnson asked.

"I'll try, Slippy is better at this than I am. It will take some time," She said as she Johnson heard her move over to the console and start fiddling with it.

"I don't know why, but I don't think we have a lot of time. Get to work on it, and finish it ASAP. It doesn't need to look beautiful, just needs to work," Johnson said and as he did so, he could have sworn he saw a shadow move just past the doorway, "Hurry, I think we got company..." Krystal started work on the machine furiously as Johnson kept a close eye on the door.

"I'll need to salvage some parts, but I think I can get it back to proper working order," she said.

"I don't think we are too worried about that here," Johnson said as he indicated the entire room, "Take what you need to get it done, just hurry." Krystal start to dash about the room collecting what she needed as a shape jumped out of the shadows, over his cover, and knocked Johnson to the floor. His carbine flew across the room and landed with a clack.

"Contact!" Johnson yelled as the gryphon landed on top of him. Johnson grabbed it by the throat with one hand as it tried to lunge for his face.

"Don't move! I'll get it off!" Krystal yelled.

"No! I'll take care of it; get to work on that console!" Johnson yelled as his free hand fumbled for his combat knife. He finally got a hold of it and yanked it out of its sheath. He then jammed it into the gryphon's neck. The gryphon creature went limp and Johnson threw it off him. He got back to his feet as two more jumped into the room. Johnson flipped his knife so that he held it by the tip and threw it at the two beasts. It flew through the air and lodged itself in one of the gryphon's head. The other quickly launched itself at Johnson, but he dodged out of the way. He then jumped at it and grabbed it around the neck. He twisted the beast head with all of his strength, and heard a satisfying crack. Johnson let the beast fall to the floor limply to the floor and pulled out his reserve pistol.

"Fox, this is Ghost. We have hostile contact! We're currently on the bridge. Abort your mission and get your tails over here!" Johnson yelled over the radio as another gryphon jump out of the shadows just to receive a bullet to the head. Another three took jumped out and Johnson started firing his weapon at them. With half his magazine gone, Johnson saw a new being appear. This one looked like a NOD cyborg from the second Tib war, even down to the arm cannon of theirs, but instead of a human being used, it was made with a being like Krystal, a fox with blue fur. Johnson aimed for where he thought the cyborg's CPU was, when it started shooting at him. Johnson dove to his left as the plasma bolts slammed into the deck plates he had occupied just moments before. Johnson rolled with the dive, landed on his feet, and started firing his pistol at the cyborg. As the last round left the chamber, Johnson saw that the weapon was having very little effect. The cyborg turned its attention on Krystal.

"Krys! Get to cover!" Johnson yelled as he holstered his pistol and ran for his carbine. Krystal saw the cyborg and dove behind a damaged console as the machine opened fire. The bolts slammed into the console rapidly and Krystal cringed as the rounds started to eat through her cover. To stick her head out to fire her blaster would be a death sentence with the amount of fire hitting her cover. Johnson quickly grabbed his rifle as four more gryphons ran into the fray. Johnson focused on the cyborg first. Johnson fired two bursts of rounds from his carbine, one hitting the chest of the cyborg and the other hitting the head. Its head exploded in a gory mess as the cyborg was thrown to the ground. Johnson then shifted his aim to the gryphons and open fired.

Three jumped at Krystal and one jumped at him. Johnson's shots hit one of the gryphons that jumped at Krystal in mid air as the one that jumped at him knocked onto his back. Johnson quickly smashed his rifle into the beast's face and followed that up with smashing his head into the gryphon's beak. Johnson then pushed the beast off him as it reeled from the hits. He quickly got to his feet and smashed his foot into its head, and then into its neck and held his foot there. He then pressed the barrel of his gun to the back of its head and squeezed the trigger. The beast's head exploded into another gory mess. Johnson then quickly looked over at Krystal, when he saw the she had things under control.

Krystal quickly smashed one of the gryphons in the head with her staff and quickly spun and hit the second gryphon as it jumped at her. Krystal's staff became a blur as it rapidly hit both gryphons. Krystal obviously knew her stuff when it came to using a staff. Johnson was surprised that she could actually use a staff as effectively in a ranged-combat centered world, as she did. Soon both gryphons dropped to the ground dead.

"Good kills," Johnson said as he focused his attention back on the door. Suddenly Fox charged through the door. Johnson almost shot Fox in the head when he did that, but was able to stop his finger from discharging his weapon. He didn't even see that his helmet indicated him as friendly. Falco and Slippy also came rushing through the door soon after.

"Well, well, well. Look who arrived, the cavalry. A little late boys, the enemy is already dead," Johnson said as he walked over to them, he then smacked Fox on the back of the head.

"Hey! What was that for?" Fox demanded as he rubbed the now sore spot on the back of his head.

"You ran through the door! That's why. I almost killed you because I thought you were a hostile. Whatever these things are, they are decent in combat. We need to set up a challenge-reply to make sure that never happens. If I didn't see that it was you and that my helmet said you were friendly, your brains would be on the wall right now. Now the challenge word is Star, the reply is Texas. Alright, remember that," Johnson explained as he aimed his weapon at the door again, "Now Slippy, start working on the console that Krystal was working on. Krystal, help him where you can. Falco, Fox, take up covering position on this door. It's a bottleneck point, Make sure your field of fire doesn't contain one of us and that it's centered on the door. Move!" Fox and Falco both moved to cover the doorway while Krystal and Slippy got to work on the console. Johnson moved over to the gryphon that had his knife, and yanked it out. He then moved over to another console that cover the doorway, took a knee, and decided to look at the files that he gathered from the computer.

"Krystal, can you translate these files, into English?" Johnson asked as he opened a file and quickly glanced through it, seeing that it was in a foreign language. The language they were written in used English characters, but they were in an order that he had never seen before.

"Ah, yes. It's actually really simple to translate from Krazoan (A/N: If anyone knows what the name of the language that Cerinians speak, please let me know. I just went with what I have seen several times, since I don't know myself) to Lylatian. All that you need to-"

"Here, explain it to EVA, not me. EVA will be automatically translating the documents into English, and I don't know if that is the same as Lylatian. If it isn't EVA will let me know," Johnson said as he turned back around and faced the doorway. Krystal started talking to EVA, while Johnson ignored the conversation. After a few minutes of explanation, Krystal stopped and went back to helping Slippy.

"EVA, translate the documents downloaded from this ship to English and bring a few of the documents up," Johnson said.

"Translating...Translating...Translation complete," EVA stated. A document appeared on Johnson's HUD. Johnson quickly scanned through it, 'Huhn, looks like an AAR (After Action Report/Review), pretty even from the looks of casualties and fatalities,' Johnson thought as he brought up another document. It was another AAR, but of a different battle. Johnson brought up another document. This one was instantly labeled as an Intelligence report in his mind. It talked about a new Bio-weapon that was produced by "the Enemy" as all of the reports have called the OPFOR (Opposing Force). He flagged it as an Intel report and opened another document. This one had several chemical compositions on it, along with details talking about the substance. Along with more Techno-babble and high-geek in the science realm of English (ie: big words that only a PhD in all of the sciences can understand), Johnson came across a picture of the substance. The green crystals in the picture made Johnson do a double take. It was Tiberium! These people created Tiberium! Johnson quickly skimmed through the document again. Most of the information flew so high over his head that it was knocking satellites out of the sky, but one thing that hit Johnson was, 'It was an accident! Tiberium is a by-product of this other substance,' Johnson thought, 'Whatever this substance was, it must have been a miracle drug for them to keep pumping it out despite that Tiberium was the only by-product... I need to get this to HIGHCOM ASAP! This could change the course of this war!'

"Finished. We're lucky that this console can perform several functions, including engine control and communications. I think any of these consoles can perform any function on the ship," Slippy announced, which knocked Johnson back into the present.

"It's definitely a Cerinian ship, but that doesn't make any sense," Krystal said.

"Ours is not to reason why," Johnson said, "Leave that kind of stuff to those who are paid to do that. We are just the guys who give them the info, let them sort it out and make sense of it," Johnson moved over to the console, "Get me General Hare, I need to give him a SITREP. After that, slow this craft down to a stop and we can try and get some Marines to help us clear out this ship." Johnson looked at the newly repaired screen.

"Alright, give me a second," Krystal said as she worked at the console.

After about two minutes, General Hare appeared on the small screen, "Ghost, what is the situation?"

"We have control of the ship, but we have been engaged by hostile forces. I also have vital information about Tiberium that GDI, and possibly even NOD, does not have. I'll forward you the information as soon as I can. This is top priority information. Get this into the hands of your researchers immediately!" Johnson said, "We'll need help clearing this place out as well. The hostile force uses attack dog-like creatures, possibly as scouts, and the only Infantry-type enemy we have faced was a cyborg. The cyborg must have been made out of the-"

"CONTACT!" Fox yelled as the sounds of Blaster fire filled the air. Johnson turned and faced the doorway as his rifle snapped up. Several gryphons and cyborg soldiers rushed into the room. The gryphons were falling because of the fire coming from Fox and Falco, but it took concentrated fire from them to take down the cyborgs. Johnson focused his attention on them. He fire burst after controlled burst into the heads of the cyborgs. He dropped three cyborgs before they focused their fire on him. Johnson ducked behind the console that they had just fixed. He grabbed a frag grenade and threw it into the hallway to protect his team from the resulting shrapnel.

"Frag out!" he yelled as the grenade left his hand. As he ducked back into cover, a round from the cyborgs flew out and hit him in the shoulder. Johnson let out a small cry of pain as the force from the blast threw him back. He landed on his back and gritted his teeth against the pain.

"I'm hit!" Johnson yelled over the roar of combat, "I'm still mobile, and can still fight!" Johnson shouldered his rifle again, but the wound was right in the place that he would rest his rifle. The grenade exploded and shredded several gryphons and even took a few cyborgs down. There were still plenty of cyborgs to kill however so, Johnson threw the pain from his mind and focused on firing his rifle. Every time he fired, he nailed a cyborg in the head, and each time the head exploded and the body fell. Despite being wounded, Johnson continued to reap a bloody toll on the cyborgs while the rest of the team focused on taking down the gryphons and occasionally a cyborg. Where it took Johnson one three-round burst to put down a cyborg, it took the rest of the team several rounds of concentrated fire to bring one down. Johnson then popped up to bring down the last three cyborgs when all three fired their weapons at him. The rounds exchanged dropped all four combatants. The three three-round bursts from Johnson nailed each cyborg in the head, but the rounds from the cyborgs landed all around Johnson. Johnson was stitched twice across the chest, and took multiple hits to his legs and arms.

Johnson crumpled to the ground without a sound and passed out from the pain, but not before hearing a voice cry out, "Ghost!"